2012 Mightier Pen Award: Roger Ailes

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at the Union League Club in New York City, the Center for Security Policy presented Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes with the Mightier Pen Award.

Mr. Ailes personifies the qualities extolled by the Mightier Pen award. Under his guidance, Fox News has transformed coverage of national security and related issues. Fox News has proven with its stunning market success that the American people want to be told the truth about an increasingly dangerous world, the challenges it poses to those who cherish freedom and the momentous choices before us – choices that may determine the future security and prosperity of this nation and its friends.

The award luncheon was preceded by a morning conference titled Under the Gun: Reporting News in a Dangerous World, meant to reflect the increasing threats to journalists around the world and to free expression, among other places, here at home.

The first session, titled “Growing Censorship of Free Speech” discussed “lawfare,” the misuse of the legal system through, notably lawsuits, to suppress 1^st Amendment rights. The panel was moderated by former Congressman Fred Grandy and featured Sam Nunberg of the Middle East Forum, Brooke Goldstein of the Lawfare Project and Andrew McCarthy, former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney and Senior Fellow at the National Review Institute.

The second session, titled “Escalating State Violence Against Political and Religious Expression” discussed the disturbing trend that journalistic freedom is on the decline globally, according to an Freedom House report.  This panel was moderated by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy, and featured prize-winning investigative reporter and editorialist Claudia Rosett of Forbes, a former recipient of the Mightier Pen and Vilma Petrash, a veteran Venezuelan journalist forced to flee censorship and oppression in her homeland.

The luncheon also featured an impromptu recognition of a past recipient of the Center for Security Policy’s Freedom Flame award, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly.  He received a standing ovation following a tribute by Andrew McCarthy, who received the Mightier Pen in 2008.

Mr. Gaffney said after the conclusion of the day’s events:

The Center for Security Policy’s Mightier Pen Award was inaugurated in 2001 in recognition of individuals who have, through their work in the Fourth Estate, contributed both to the public appreciation of the need for robust U.S. national security policies and the indispensability of US military strength to preserving international peace. Previous awardees have included William F. Buckley, Jr., A.M. Rosenthal, Charles Krauthammer, and Norman Podhoretz.

The Mightier Pen Award is presented under the auspices of the National Security and New Media Journalism Project.  The Project was established to provide professional development for the next generation of national security journalists in an objective environment informed by the burgeoning opportunities of the new media.

The National Security and New Media Journalism Project was initiated by the Center for Security Policy in 2010 to encourage high quality news reporting by advancing new standards for accuracy and integrity in national security journalism.